Yalkut Shimoni, collection of midrashim by R. Shimon HaDarshan, Part I on the Torah. [Thessaloniki: Moshe Soncino, 1527]. Part II, on Neviim and Ketuvim. [Thessaloniki: Don Yehudah Gedaliah, 1521]. Two volumes.
First editions of both parts. Part II on Neviim and Ketuvim was printed before Part I on the Torah.
Both parts incomplete (Part II printed without title page, but missing beginning).

The present item is the first edition of Yalkut Shimoni. The cross-references (Remazim) printed correctly in this edition were mistaken as sections and therefore misplaced in all subsequent editions.
Glosses in several places (mainly in second volume), as well as handwritten notations to some leaves.

Two volumes. First volume (Torah): 2-65; 372 leaves. After leaf 65 is bound [1] blank leaf. Missing 7 leaves: Title page and leaves 373-378 (with photocopy replacement). Volume II (Neviim and Ketuvim): 2-[140]; 68; [141]-236 leaves. Missing first leaf (with photocopy replacement; next to it is a photocopy replacement for leaves 2-4 due to large open tears to original leaves). 68 leaves of Tehillim are bound between leaves [140]-[141] (numbered 138-139). Approx. 29 cm. First volume in fair condition, second volume in fair-poor condition. Many stains, including large dampstains and traces of past dampness with mold stains. Wear (heavy wear to volume II). Worming, affecting text. Many tears (especially to second volume), including open tears affecting text (large open tears to first leaves of the second volume, heavily affecting text), partially repaired with paper. Many leaves in both volumes were apparently replaced from other copies (margins of some leaves in the second volume replaced with paper filling). New parchment bindings.

Provenance: Estate of Prof. Ephraim Elimelech Urbach.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.

Nehar Pishon, homilies on the Torah and Talmud by R. Yitzchak Aboab (the second). Constantinople: Eliezer son of Gershom Soncino, Shevat 1538. First edition.
Signature in Sephardic script on title page.

[80] leaves. 20 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and dark stains. Open tears to title page and several additional leaves, affecting title frame and text on verso of leaf, and slightly affecting text in several additional places, repaired with paper and paper filling (with replacement for title frame). Light worming, slightly affecting text. Stamps and handwritten inscriptions. New leather binding.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.

Two (incomplete) books printed in the 1540s, bound together in one volume, in an elegant early binding:
Yosifon, by Yosef son of Gurion. [Venice: Giovanni di Farri and brothers, 1544.]
Bound with: Beurim on Rashi's commentary to the Torah by R. Yisrael Isserlein. Venice: Marco Antonio Giustiniano, 1544.

Many handwritten glosses and inscriptions (Latin and Hebrew) in margins of Yosifon on textual variants. Deletions with ink of chapter numbers, adding new numbering matching the Latin edition of Johann Friedrich Breithaupt, Gotha, 1707.
Ownership inscriptions and signatures to endpapers and inside the front and back boards. At the end of the book is a German inscription. Ownership inscriptions to title page of the Beurim.

Yosifon: 4-155 leaves. Missing first 4 leaves (with photocopy replacements). Beurim on Rashi: 20 leaves. Missing last 4 leaves (with photocopy replacements). Bound with tens of blank leaves dating to the time of printing. 20 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dark dampstains. Tears affecting text in several places, repaired with paper. Elegant early binding, leather-bound wood, with decorations. Damage to binding.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.

Responsa by the Maharam of Rothenburg. Cremona: Vincenzo Conti, 1557. First edition.
Illustrated title frame.
On p. 25a is a gloss in Ashkenazic script (ca. the period of printing). Another small gloss on p. 69b.

76, 81-108, [15] leaves. Missing 4 leaves (77-80). 19.5 cm. Overall good condition. Stains, including dampstains. Marginal worming. New binding.

Provenance: Estate of Prof. Ephraim Elimelech Urbach.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.

Two volumes of Tur with Beit Yosef, from the Beit Yosef edition printed in the author's lifetime.

• Tur Yoreh Deah, with Beit Yosef. [Venice: Giovanni Griffio, 1564.] Second edition of Beit Yosef, printed in the lifetime of the author, R. Yosef Karo.
This volume reached Libya, containing signatures of rabbis of Tripoli and stamps from Benghazi.
Inscription on p. 1a of "David son of R. Shabtai Tayar" – R. David Tayar (1690-1763), a leading Torah scholar and dayan in Tripoli and Rabbi of the city. Late in his life, he immigrated to Eretz Israel and passed away in Safed. He is a signatory of the Gabila ordinance in Tripoli, 1760.
Under it is an additional inscription of "Chaim son of R. Binyamin Waturi" who purchased it from the agent of the widow of R. David – R. Chaim Waturi (d. 1802), rabbi and dayan of Tripoli. He is a signatory on the renewal of the Gabila ordinance in 1778.
Some glosses (apparently by one of the above rabbis).

On several leaves are inscriptions with names of the Lavi family (apparently of Tripoli); inscription (or signature) on several leaves.
On several leaves are stamps of "Leone M. Cohen, Bengasi" – stamp of Yehudah son of Mordechai HaKohen of Benghazi (apparently the son of Mordechai HaKohen of Tripoli, author of Higid Mordechai on the history of Libyan Jews).
398, [25] leaves. Missing [6] leaves with title page, introductions and beginning of index. The leaves are misordered: the gatherings (each with 6 leaves) are bound in reverse order (from left to right – in ascending order of gatherings, like a Latin book, opened from the left side). 37 cm. Overall fair condition. Stains, including large dampstains, dark stains and mold stains. Worming, affecting text. Tears and open tears, affecting text in several places. Two leaves disconnected. Late binding, made in the Ferramonti DP camp in Italy (see below). Damage and wear to binding.

• Tur Even HaEzer, with Beit Yosef. Venice: Giovanni di Gara, 1565. An edition printed in the lifetime of the author.
Signature to title page, in Italian script. Several glosses in Italian script.
Stamps of "Leone M. Cohen", of Benghazi, Libya.
Censorship deletions to several leaves, including deletions relating to laws of marriage, differing from the usual censorship of matters relating to gentiles.
Signatures of censors on last leaves.
258 leaves. 35 cm. Overall fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and mold stains. Worming, affecting text and title frame. Small tears and open tears, affecting text to last leaf. Inscriptions. Late binding, made in the Ferramonti DP camp (see below). Damage and wear to binding.

The binding of both volumes was done in the DP camp in Ferramonti di Tarsia, south Italy, which had served as a concentration camp during the Nazi occupation, and after the war was converted to a DP camp. Inside the binding is mounted a paper label with an English caption saying the book was bound by the bookbinding division of Amal, which was founded by Shraga Kohn and Shlomo Weiss.

Provenance: Estate of Prof. Ephraim Elimelech Urbach.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.